Eric Matthews is back with his new album The Imagination Stage (1/22/08)

As he puts it. “There’s something new and different that’s happening to me creatively,” Matthews says. “There’s the music I imagine – music that I want to make – and then there’s the music I’ve been able to make. And those two aren’t necessarily the same thing. Now, what I’m making is akin to dreaming music – something ‘other-ly’. ”

Matthews wrote and sang every gleaming note and glistening melody, played every instrument, and arranged every chord progression and horn chart. He also brought strings back into the fold, as well as producer-engineer Tony Lash, who’s worked with Matthews since his Cardinal days. The new sounds deployed – drum loops, more synthesizers than he’s ever used – surprised even Matthews. “Had somebody told me 15 years ago that I would use drum loops on a record,” he muses, “I would have scoffed!” What pleases him most is something decidedly less modern. “It’s impossible to separate strings from my vision of the way songs should sound, so that’s a return to form," he says. "I'm invigorated. I’ve reached the imagination stage. Now, it’s a matter of diving as deeply as I can into that.”